Friday night grateful moment

eaceful and quiet. That's what's going on around here this Friday night. After the bustle of the past week, a house full of dear people, we're now back down to the three of us. It was great to have people, but it's lovely to be sitting here, in the light of the Christmas tree, with my guys.

In spite of my desire to post this week--recipes! thankfulness! Christmas decorating!--I just couldn't get it together to have that happen. So, theoretically, I will share some posts in the coming days, a few pictures, maybe a recipe or two, and before you know it, we'll be in full-on Christmas baking mode. Wow. How did we get to almost-December?

But, back to my by-the-fire musings, and gratitude.

I could preface this with "Of Course!" but my gratitude for family was front and center this week. Getting to spend the holiday with my immediate family, and spending a little time with husband's as well, I was reminded of how lucky we are to have such love and support in our lives. I'm grateful for our conversations and laughter, and for the excuse to put the Christmas tree up early!

thankyou

I'm very grateful that I have zero pull to participate in the Black Friday festivities. I have a shopping gene, of course, but I also have a big big anti-crowd gene, and the idea of being packed in at a big box store gives me fits of anxiety. The extent of my Black Friday were my black yoga pants, which I wore all day while lounging about and not leaving the house!

And in my not-leaving-the-house, I dug into Christmas music and enjoyed getting reacquainted with my tunes, making a few different mixes for specific purposes, and adding new tunes along the way. I'm grateful for music most days of the week, but feel that joy especially keenly over the holidays.

Also part of my homebody day: leftovers. Not that one couldn't work up an appetite while hip-checking people at Macy's for bargains, but I was grateful to graze the leftovers and create a plate filled with Perfect Bites... and I'm also still looking forward to a little pie tonight... Next-Day Leftovers are awesome! (And I'm grateful that there are plentiful leftovers, so I might be able to tuck a few meals away in the freezer for future winter afternoons when we're craving a little stuffing-turkey-mashed potato dinner.)

This month has been filled with thankfulness all over social media, and I'm generally a fan of those sentiments (surprised, aren't you?). Not every one of the posts I read over the month, or yesterday specifically, resonated with me 100%, but whatever makes we petty and self-involved humans (I'm including myself in that category) pause and reflect on the many things, little and big, we have to be grateful for; well, I'm for that. 

I'm grateful for our Christmas tree, for its glow, and for all our ornaments, with their sentimental meaning and big ribbony bows. I would put the tree up early and take it down laaaate, if it were even remotely acceptable. According to all the men in the house this week, I pushed the early boundary a bit with having it up at the same time that there are still pumpkins on the porch!

I'm grateful for two more days of downtime before the whoosh of another week is upon us.

I'm grateful for another week with Seth in the house.

I'm grateful for our fireplace.

For my friends and their dear ways. 

For Chief, and his unfailing love.

For grace, which is new. Every. Morning.

So, that last thing? It means the world to me, and I'm grateful for it, more and more as time goes on.

I hope your grateful list is especially long this week, and the coming weekend gives you ample rest to reflect on the things that matter most. What are you grateful for tonight?